


Running From Chaos

by WellRiddleMeThis



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Accidental Hunger Games Vibe, Action/Adventure, violence and death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-10
Updated: 2014-10-19
Packaged: 2018-02-20 15:50:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2434379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WellRiddleMeThis/pseuds/WellRiddleMeThis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abbey West is an outcast from her peers but never let it have any effect on her life... Until The Joker swings by the University to play a little social experiment and she happens catch his eye, after all, she's always been unlucky.  The Joker I wrote is very much inspired by Heath Ledger however there may also be elements of the Arkham Asylum Joker in there too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. My Bad Luck

I’ve always been unlucky; the sort of person who would always draw the short straw, always get tails when I’d guessed heads, always miss the bus by two seconds on the most important days… But I think this was the unluckiest I’ve ever been.

I’m Abbey West and I live in Gotham City; the worst place in the world to be unlucky. You never know who or what is around each and every corner, you don’t want to be in the wrong place at the wrong time; unfortunately I was, and it screwed up my life pretty bad. Don’t get me wrong I didn’t have a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; that was the only area of life where my luck held out, until that day where everything changed.

My mum had convinced me to take self – defence classes in the evening because Gotham was ‘too dangerous to live in without some form of protection and since you don’t believe in carrying weapons…’ 

Trust me, you don’t want to hear the whole discussion but long story short I gave in and took up the classes. You’d think I was seventeen the way she talks to me, not twenty three and training to be a teacher; that’s the other thing, as if I had time to take self-defence classes when I was studying 24/7. She’d been nagging me for ages to start; I guess it was just my bad luck that I decided to start on that day, if I’d have waited one more week… 

But I didn’t. And I suppose there could be an argument for it being my fault, after all when The Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum again; most people don’t leave their houses for a few days if they can help it, for fear of attracting attention to themselves. I, however, can be very stubborn. I’d tried the whole ‘staying inside for a few days just in case a bomb goes off in my local bank or I just so happen to walk past him on the way to the pet shop’ thing and I was sick of it. Why should I let some maniac control my actions just by through fear? No, and besides what were the chances that I would run into him? Again, it circles back to my bad luck.

On the subject of drawing attention to yourself, I dressed differently. I wasn’t a goth or emo or anything like that, I just liked that sort of style and in a city like Gotham… Let’s just say if you dress differently you were either a super – criminal or working for one. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want people to associate me with the criminal gangs but I’m too stubborn to change who I am for a load of paranoid office workers. I’d gained a reputation in my class as being obsessed with the super – criminals that ran around the city and asylum (I wasn’t); my ‘classmates’ found it funny to match my outfit to a criminal, every single day. 

If I was wearing something green I was showing devotion to The Riddler or Poison Ivy, something purple and it was The Joker… It got boring very quickly. My favourite colours were black and red, which earned me the nickname of ‘Harley’, according to them, I was planning on taking over from the real Harley Quinn, who had been killed in a fight a few months earlier. Bascially, I didn’t have any friends and I was okay with that, I wasn’t exactly a ‘people person’.

So, on the 30th April 2014, I went to my first (and last) self – defence class at Gotham University, and as I started the ten minute drive from my apartment I couldn’t help thinking about how I should just stay home instead of wasting my time on this class… God, I wished I stayed home. 

As soon as I walked into that room I knew I wasn’t welcome because apparently my false reputation had spread pretty much throughout the entire university, although I suppose what I was wearing didn’t help much. I was never one for tracksuits or wearing leggings without anything over them so I decided to go in red jeans that were just a little too big to be classed as skinny, an old black t-shirt with the words ‘Haters love me’ on the front and black converse shoes. I have short black hair so decided not to do anything with it as it probably wouldn’t get in the way and was wearing a small amount of black eye – liner, mascara and dark purple tinted lip-gloss. 

I know, I know, not the sort of thing you’d go to a self – defence class in but it wasn’t like I was planning to stay very long; I was going to leave after about half an hour and just say it wasn’t for me.

Everyone was staring at me as if I’d just kicked a puppy, and I mean everyone, even the guy who was meant to be teaching us. I went over to the bench at the side of the room and waited for the class to start, I wasn’t there five minutes before I started hearing the snide comments people were saying.

‘Check out Harley’

‘What the hell is she wearing; does she know it’s a self-defence class?’

‘Hey Harley go back to Arkham where you belong!’

I wasn’t going to take this when I didn’t even want to be here.

‘One, my name is Abbey ok? Use it or don’t talk to me at all! Two’ –

And then the electricity cut out.  
And then we heard the voice that none of us wanted to hear.


	2. It's Simple Really

‘Hellllo Gotham University’

_Shit. No. This can’t be happening._

Everyone was silent and stock still; it was as if time had been frozen.  
‘I am here to do a little, ah, social experiment.’

I looked around to try and pinpoint where his voice was coming from and saw some speakers in the corners of the room. _When did they get there? He must have got… Oh for god’s sake Abbey get your priorities straight, you’re stuck in one of The Joker’s ‘social experiments’, and you’re wondering how he installed the speakers? God…_

‘All of the doors and windows have been sealed; there is no, way, out. So you have no choice but to play my little game.’

‘And the game is?’ I muttered, mostly to myself but I’m pretty sure most of the class heard.

‘An excellent question from the tall girl in the red jeans!’ He was obviously ecstatic, like a child who has just been given a new toy. At that, anyone who was stood even vaguely near me moved away, as if scared that simply being next to me would attract his attention.

_How the hell did he hear that? And how does he know I said it? He must have this place rigged with cameras and mics. Oh why did I have to open my big mouth?_

‘It’s simple really; all you have to do is survive the next hour. At this very moment, ten of my boys are spreading out across the entire building and if they cross your path…they will gun, you, down. So, you may be tempted to hide away for an hour in the hopes you won’t be found. Bad idea. I can see every part of this university and if I see one person hiding, I will tell my boys your whereabouts and they will find you. I suggest you keep moving. So what’s the point of this little… game? Well, I want to know whether you all, ah, band together and help each – other or split apart and look out for yourselves. You have one hour from now and by the way, one of you has already died. Wooahahahahaha….’

Someone behind me asked ‘what does he mean someone’s already died?’  
 **Bang!** We heard the sound of a gunshot ominously close to the room.  
‘Goood luuck’

‘Well for a start she’s got to go!’  
I turned around to see a fairly tall girl with dark brown hair glaring at me; I could see where this was going.  
‘What?!’  
‘You heard me; we don’t want you anywhere near us, you got his attention and for all we know you could be helping him so get lost!’  
‘You actually think that I would –  
‘Enough chit chat ladiiies, time is ticking and you need to get moving…’  
I looked around for anyone who might stand up for me but, predictably found none so without another word I strode out of the room and headed for the east wing of the building.

 

Most of the lights were still out but just as I left the room the back – up power came on, casting only dim lighting and giving the place a distinctly eerie feel. I turned around to see the rest of the class moving quickly in the opposite direction. _Fine._ I thought. _A group of ten people will be easier to spot than just one. I have the advantage._

Okay, okay I know how that sounds but see it from my point of view; they had all abandoned me to die on my own can you blame me for feeling a bit spiteful? I didn’t want any of them to die but in that situation, I was more concerned about myself…. I mean they cast me out! And why? Because I was different, how the hell can they think they’re better than me when… Sorry, I’m getting off subject, the point is, I was left to fend for myself.

The next fifty minutes were the worst fifty minutes of my life. I was constantly terrified that I’d go round a corner and be shot in the head, or worse, and I felt like a mouse being hunted by a cat. But the worst thing was when someone was found; the gunshot always seemed a little bit too close and The Joker would always say something like ‘Ooh one more down, are ya feeling the heat yet?’ At one point, he even started singing

‘Hey! I’m gonna get you too another one bites the dust’… I might have laughed a little… What? Sometimes you have to laugh to stop yourself curling up in a corner and crying; and this was not the time to lose my head.

I somehow managed to survive until the last ten minutes when I heard a gunshot and The Joker said ‘Well, well, well how innnteresting… Ten minutes to go and only two people left; the social outcast and the girl who threw her out… I know who I’m routing for hehehehahaha…’

_Oh my God,_ I thought, _What if he means me? Could I live with myself if I’m the only one out of this who survives, considering that I never once tried to help anyone else? Some teacher I’d be… And what are the implications of knowing that The Joker wants me to ‘win’? There must be a reason, but I’m not sure I want to find out what._ I was so absorbed in my thoughts that I didn’t even notice I’d walked straight into a trap… Well done me.

I’d walked into a small room containing only a round table, a few chairs and one single cupboard on the wall… Oh and a henchman… can’t forget him. He was about the same height as me but was lean, he didn’t have any weapons thank god but I knew he was still extremely dangerous so turned to run back the way I’d come, except I couldn’t. The door had closed behind me and someone had locked it from the outside. 

_Damn my bad luck_ I thought as the henchman slowly started walking towards me, a completely blank expression on his face and for a moment I ridiculously wondered why he wasn’t wearing a clown mask like the others, like it matters. I backed away and was about to give up when I thought No, I am not being killed this easily. So I grabbed the chair in front of me and swung it at his head, I saw his eyes flicker with surprise just before the chair made contact. It didn’t do anything! It wasn’t as if I’d swung it lightly either; the force of the collision ripped the chair from my hands and it flew to the other side of the room, yet he kept coming forward as if it was nothing. 

‘That’s impossible’ I muttered before I found myself backed up against the wall with nothing to protect myself with. He moved with an unexpected speed and grabbed my throat with his hand; lifting me off the floor and suffocating me. _This is it, I’m going to die_ I thought as my vision started to blur despite by best efforts to rip his hand away, I remember just before I blacked out hearing a gunshot and The Joker saying ‘And we have a winner!’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the bit with the accidental Hunger Games vibe (cause of the nature of the 'social experiment' aha hope you liked it :)


	3. Soo, You Got a Name?

I woke up in that little classroom some time later, the door was open, the henchman was gone and there was a green post – it note stuck to my forehead which read: ‘Congratulations! Follow the arrows to collect your prize’. The handwriting was messy and the signature was a smiley face with black eyes and a red smile. I was suddenly filled with a rage I never usually feel (I’m not really one for losing my temper), I screwed up the note and threw it at the opposite wall and screamed at the ceiling ‘WHY CAN’T I JUST GO HOME?!’ The rage passed as quickly as it came and I was left with a desire to just go to sleep; I knew I couldn’t though so I slowly got to my feet and made my way unsteadily out of the room, leaning on the wall for support. As I left the room I noticed purple arrows spray painted on the walls of the corridor and started to follow them.

It was only then I noticed just how many bodies were scattered across the floor; they’d been there before but I was too concerned about myself to notice, and now I was stepping over them trying not to stand in the pools of blood spotted around the bodies... I don’t know what repulsed me more; the sight of so much death and the coppery smell of the blood, or the fact that even then was struggling to conjure up any sympathy for them as I recognised the people from the self – defence class who cast me out. 

_What is wrong with me?_ I thought _I should feel grief stricken, even if I didn’t like these people I should feel at least a little distressed by their death._

The truth is, I didn’t feel anything, and it didn’t even feel like I was really there. It felt like a dream and I kept expecting to wake up at any moment…if I’m honest…I still kinda feel like that, but I suppose that’s not the point.

Without really trying to I’d made it to the doors of the main sports hall, where the arrows stopped. I wasn’t even focusing on where I had been walking; I supposed I just subconsciously followed the arrows anyway. Realising I was probably about to walk into yet another trap I snapped out of the daze I had been in and turned to try and get out, only to find another henchman, this time masked and with a gun, blocking my path. He motioned to the door with the gun and I had no choice but to see what waited for me on the other side.

The hall was decorated like a children’s birthday party, with helium balloons and banners that read ‘CONGRATULATIONS!’ I would have laughed but suddenly I heard a voice behind me.

‘And here is our winner!’

I turned around and saw him. The Joker. The vague and fuzzy pictures they showed on the news hardly did him justice he was… something else. He was tall, only a little taller than myself but still made me feel tiny, he was lean with slightly stooped shoulders (though I figured that was intentional to make himself look more intimidating) and stood with an air of confidence and cunning that reminded me of a wolf about to pounce. He was wearing matching purple trousers and greatcoat over a green waistcoat, a purple shirt, brown shoes and a dark green, almost black tie. But what stood out most was his face; the black and white greasepaint making him look like some kind of ghostly spirit and the red extenuating scars that ran from the corners of his mouth to the top of his cheekbones; framed by a mess of badly dyed green hair, he had the look of a madman (though the whole of Gotham knows _never_ to call The Joker crazy to his face, unless you have a death wish).

He brushed past me and sat at the opposite side of the table to where I was standing and motioned for me to sit down, which I did, too in shock to do anything else. He lent back in his chair and crossed his arms loosely across his chest, staring at me with those dark brown eyes, though they looked more black thanks to the make – up which surrounded them. Neither of us moved for a second and it was all I could do to match is gaze before he leaned forward and leant his forearms on the table.

‘Soo, you got a name?’ He said, his voice smooth and confident, with one eyebrow arched in a show of overly dramatic curiosity.

‘Abbey West’ I said, willing my voice to sound stronger than it felt.

‘Abbey West… and what Abbey, did you think of my little game hmm?’

‘What did I think of it? You killed twenty one people, twenty one innocent people and…’

‘No, no, no, no…no _I_ personally didn’t kill those people, my men did. Now, they _could_ have decided to spare those people, to turn a, ah, blind eye’.

I found my voice and my courage (or maybe my stupidity).  
‘But you’re the one who told them to do it, threatened them on pain on death to –‘

‘Can you read minds, Abbey?’

 _Well, of course I can’t_ I thought but luckily I had more sense than to say that to him so I simply said ‘No.’

‘Well then how can you know that I gave them any threat at all? I simply, ah, gathered a few… scumbags and told them ‘hey, how d’ya fancy some paid work?’ They took it from there.’

I didn’t know what to say so I stayed silent, and after a moment The Joker continued.

‘And ya know… I don’t… I don’t see, that the people who died this evening were reeeally innocent. Was it _innocent_ to ah, cast you out on your own in such a dangerous situation Abbey? And if they were all innocent, are you also innocent Abbey?’

‘Well… I…’

‘Innocence, like many things, is in the eye of the beholder. Now, if you compare yourself with someone… someone like me, you probably seem as innocent as they come right? But, if you look at your actions from the past hour, you start to seem, well, a bit less innocent.’

‘What do you mean _actions?_ I did do anything except try and stay alive.’

‘Exactly. You focused on yourself, your own safety, your own life. Not once did you attempt to help anyone else, any of the ten other people who made up the night staff of this place, and not once did you try and contact outside help. Now, to me, that seems pretty, uh, selfish and if you’re selfish, you can’t be innocent.’

I was dumbstruck. Not because of fear, or any sort of anger at being called selfish, but because what he said actually made sense to me. I didn’t help anyone else, I even felt, for some part, grateful that I was on my own so that I could move around unseen and that I didn’t have anyone else to worry about.  
The Joker raised his hand in front of my face and clicked his fingers, it was only then I realised how engrossed in my own thoughts I had been. He was looking at me with a mixture of amusement and triumph on his face and I realised that he wanted me to doubt myself; that I was playing straight into his hands.

‘You back?’ He asked, ‘Cos it just occurred to me, um, that I promised you a prize and, ah, never gave you one’.

‘I don’t want –‘

‘I insist’. He reached into a pocket of his coat and pulled out a small box tied with a ribbon and placed it in front of me. I trusted him about as far as I could throw him and really didn’t want to know what was inside that box.

‘Well?’ He said, he raised an eyebrow and a dark edge had appeared in his voice, I opened the box, knowing if I annoyed him I wouldn’t be alive for much longer. As soon as the lid came off the box there was a puff of smoke and I felt a sharp pain in my neck, I barely had time to realise it was some sort of dart or syringe before I passed out and slumped forward onto the table.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for anyone reading hope you're enjoying it, can you let me know how well or badly I've written The Joker cause he's such a difficult one to write well, thanks :)


	4. Didn't Like Your Present?

Now, what happened next was strange; even compared to the rest of the day. When I woke up I couldn’t work out where I was for a second, before realising I was still in the University. Except it'd been completely re - decorated to look like some horror film 'fun house', trust The Joker to use his resources for interior design. I can't really describe what it looked like, it was way too surreal; I don't think words could do it justice. Lets just say it was creepy and very... Joker-ish; and while we're on the subject of him, he'd swanned off so once again I was alone, scared and pissed... Very pissed. I'd already gone through one 'game' that almost cost me my life, there was no way I wanted to go through another. But... At the same time; I didn't fancy staying in that room either, I figured he expected me to explore and I didn't want to test his patience so I headed towards the door.

The Joker has a notoriously sinister sense of humor, anyone who is anyone knows that; but I don't think that people can truly understand how terrifying it is to be on the receiving end of his 'jokes'. It messes with your mind, you start thinking that everything is a bomb, that everything will kill you. It wouldn't be so bad if he was predictable but... I'd rather try to catch smoke with my bare hands than try to predict what The Joker will do; I'd probably be more successful with the smoke thing as well. 

Bearing that in mind, you’ll understand why I spent a good five minutes staring at the door, internally battling with myself about whether I should actually open it; and wondering what might be waiting for me on the other side. In the end I opened the door to reveal... Nothing. Just a pitch black corridor. I wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved or suspicious at the seemingly empty space in front of me, so I took a few tentative steps forward; before throwing myself backwards as something dropped from the ceiling directly in front of me, and the sound of laughing erupted from the corridor. I landed on the floor in a panicked heap and scrambled backward to put some space between me and the thing in the doorway. 

When it became apparent to my whirling mind that, whatever it was, it couldn't move I forced myself to calm down and see what it was. I got up and saw what I thought was some kind of dummy and began cursing myself for being so jumpy, but as I got closer I realised that I was wrong. Suddenly, the world started to spin and I lent on the door for support, retching until I finally ejected the contents of my stomach onto the floor. It was only then, as I stood staring in disbelief at the dead body of the girl from the self-defence class, I truly understood just how messed up The Joker really was.

The girls’ dead body was hung by the neck from the ceiling, a small pool of blood had accumulated underneath her and she had a big, red smile painted on her face. I was in shock. Shock which turned to blind rage as I noticed a tag hanging off one of her fingers which read: 

‘For Abbey West  
From, J’

I slammed the door shut with a wordless yell and slid down onto the floor, with my back against the door and my arms around my knees. Once again the rage left me as quickly as it came and I started sobbing. I didn’t care that The Joker could probably see my breakdown. I didn’t care that I was probably giving him the exact reaction he wanted. All I cared about, was the body hanging on the other side of the door and the guilt slowly building up inside me. All I wanted to do it sit there and cry, but unfortunately The Joker had other ideas.

“What’s the matter aaabs? Didn’t like your present?”  
I looked up at the ceiling and shouted “Fuck you Joker!”, no longer caring what repercussions my words had and was met with an eruption of manic laughter which made my hair stand on end and grated badly on my nerves.  
I jumped up and strode into the middle of the room “Go ahead, laugh! Laugh until you can’t breathe; laugh until you bloody DIE!”  
He erupted into an even bigger laughing fit than before and for a moment I hoped he really would have a heart attack and die laughing, but then slowly the laughing stopped and was replaced with an eerie silence   
“Why so serious Abby? You should learn to lighten up, or people might think you’re, ah, boring.”  
“I feel sick, I’m tired and I’m scared as hell. I just want to go home!”  
“… Well why didn’t you just say so in the first place?”  
I only had a moment to let what he’d said sink in before someone hit me in the back of the head and I fell, unconscious, to the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter, the last chapter should be out soon :)
> 
> Just realised that this is the third time a chapter has finished with Abbey being knocked out, not intentional but I quite like it.


	5. You Can't Run From Choas

And then I was back home, as if nothing had ever happened. There were no tripwires, no joker cards, no bombs… no nothing. Just me, in my apartment; life back to normal. I could almost have believed that it was all just a bad dream; except my head hurt like hell and I had a tonne of missed calls and messages on my phone from my mum asking if I was OK. I phoned her back to let her know I was fine and went to the police station where they interviewed me and, after a lifetime of answering question after question, let me go back home.

So that’s the end of the story right? Wrong. I tried to get back into my studies but I just couldn’t concentrate and I always felt like someone was following me… watching me. I put it down to paranoia, after all I had gone through a pretty traumatic experience, but as the months ticked by I stared realising that the reason I couldn’t concentrate on getting my degree was that I didn’t want it anymore. I just wasn’t bothered, I was…Bored. I started daydreaming that I’d run into him again and was looking over my shoulder not in fear, but in hope; hope that he’d be there… That scared me more than anything else ever had; it scared me that at least a part of me wanted to see him again, even if it meant more pain and death.

So I moved. Not out of Gotham (I didn’t have the money for that), but I moved to the other side of the city, I quit my degree and stopped training to be a teacher. It felt like running away… I guess it was but I didn’t have any choice, I figured that the only way I’d get any peace was to change my life around a bit; I could always go back to teaching later. So, I got a job at the front desk of a gym and started working out; for a while I was able to forget about The Joker and just live a normal life.

Until a few months later when the boredom started to creep back into my mind, I tried everything, every hobby under the sun but I just couldn’t shake it. Then, to top it all off, I started noticing…things. Nothing that was outwardly weird, or would cause a second thought on its own; the white paint that I found on the arm of my jacket, the congratulations banner that got caught on the windscreen wipers of my car, it wasn’t until I found a playing card in my coat pocket that I realised it was all connected. There was only one person who would leave these… breadcrumbs? Reminders?... But to what end? And after a while I worked out what he was telling me.

You can’t run from chaos. Once chaos has attached itself to you, it follows you no matter where you go. You can try to shake it off and move on; but it never truly leaves, it’ll always be there, hanging over your shoulders. It’s best to just embrace it and see where it takes you. I realised the idea of being able to live a normal life after surviving a run – in with The Joker was ridiculous, I survived and it was for a reason, it was because chaos chose me, it was because, for once, luck was on my side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this let me know what you think of it. There might be another story featuring Abbey and The Joker in the future but for now hope you enjoyed it :)

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic so I hope you like it and please be nice :)


End file.
